Colombia’s Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon has offered a reward of $100 million COP (over $50,000) for any information leading to the rescue of a 10-year-old daughter of a local mayor kidnapped in Colombia’s north east Thursday.
The Minister slammed the kidnappers as “cowardly” and “miserable” for endangering the life of such a young child. The girl, Nhora, is the daughter of the mayor of Fortul, a village in the north east Colombian department of Arauca.
A combined military and police operation is currently under way in the area surrounding the girl’s village in the hopes of rescuing or securing the release of the child.
According to Colombian newspaper La Semana, the kidnapping of the young child in the department of Arauca has been attributed to left wing rebel group the FARC. The commander of police in Arauca, Javier Guevara, told La Semana that the FARCs tenth front was responsible for the event.
The girl was walking along a street in Fortul with her mother at 7am Thursday when a vehicle approached and forced the pair to get inside. The armed group later abandoned the mother and the vehicle just outside of town and fled to an unknown location with the girl.